


The Impossible Year

by lannisterslioness



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Parents Claire Dearing & Owen Grady, Protective Owen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-05-23 15:12:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6120514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannisterslioness/pseuds/lannisterslioness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After both of Zach and Gray’s parents have died after a car crash, it leaves Claire to take on the role of not only being a mother to the boys, but also still trying to keep her job at Jurassic World, juggling between duties. Claire finds surprising help in Owen Grady - the raptor trainer whom she presumed was nothing more than a neanderthal after their horrible date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Wow, so it's been a while since I've written anything for Jurassic World. I don't know what sparked this idea but first of all - sorry for the angst this will contain, the idea just came to me. Hopefully this is okay?

    It had been an impossible week to get through, Claire couldn’t even think straight anymore; all she knew was that she had the boys and they were now on a plane headed towards Isla Nublar. Karen was gone, their father as well, and Claire was left as the only one who could take care of Zach and Gray. She was left to be the person who had to uproot their entire lives after their world had already been turned upside down at the loss of their parents - they were going from normal boys in Wisconsin to living on an island filled with dinosaurs with an aunt who knew next to nothing about raising children. She wasn’t ready, she could barely keep her life together and now she was in charge of two more lives - Claire felt like she was about to fall apart, but she couldn’t just yet. 

 

    “It’ll be like an adventure.” Claire reassure them, holding Gray close to her who had refused to let go of her since she arrived after the call from the hospital, and trying to get Zach’s attention who was lost in his phone since she arrived as well. “Think of all the fun we’ll have, all three of us. You get to see the dinosaurs whenever you want and go on all the rides.” 

 

    There was a response from neither of them, both remaining in their own state of shock. Claire brushed back Gray’s hair and pressed a kiss to his forehead, hoping he’d finally sleep after days of staying awake. Most of all Claire wished that Zach would just talk to her, he’d barely said two words to her in the past week, and she knew he was upset. She was taking them away to live on an island, they were going to be homeschooled, and both Zach and Gray barely knew anything about her since she spent most of their childhood out on Isla Nublar. It was hard on everybody, but the silence was killing Claire in the worst way.

 

    “Everything is going to get better, I promise.” Claire said. 

 

    “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Zach mumbled under his breath, keeping his eyes locked on whatever was on his phone in front of him. 

 

* * *

  
  


    Claire liked her apartment before all of this, she even remembered exactly where she was in here just a week ago as she got the call. She was sitting on the sofa, relaxing in her pj’s, drinking a glass of wine and watching the news. The empty glass was still sitting on the table where she left it, right as she was trying to process what she was hearing. She dropped her bags on the floor in the living room, the boys had their few bags of what they could bring - the rest of their furniture being shipped over and arriving in a few days. Everything in her apartment felt so cold after being in her sister's warm house, helping the boys pack up for the new lives that lied ahead of them. 

 

    “You’re rooms are down the hall over there, you two can pick whichever ones you want. Once your stuff shows up I’ll help you two get everything organized. Next week the homeschooling will start so you two can just go on your computers and do whatever you have to.” Claire sighed, she could barely remember her name at the moment much less what she was supposed to remember about the virtual school she had enrolled Zach and Gray in so they could live on the island with her. “But, uh, are either of you hungry? I can order some pizza or something from one of the restaurants out on Main Street.” 

 

    “I’m not hungry.” Zach said. “I’m just gonna crash, I’m tired.” 

 

    “Okay, that’s fine.” Claire nodded as Zach walked off, heading into one of the bedrooms and slamming the door shut behind him causing Claire to jump a bit at the sound. “What about you Gray? Are you hungry?” 

 

    “No...not really.” Gray was quiet, he looked at her but it looked almost as if he was looking right through her. “I’m tired.” 

 

    “Alright.” Claire pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.” 

 

    Claire walked Gray into the other spare bedroom that was still open. The walls were bare, the bed was covered in simple white sheets and a white comforter, there was nothing about the room that made it comfortable for a kid. Claire hoped that their belongings would get here soon, perhaps their own furniture would help them adjust to living on the island a bit quicker. She put Gray’s bags on the floor and set his backpack on the floor by the bedside dresser in case he needed anything out of it. Claire tucked Gray into bed and pressed another kiss to his forehead, letting him turn over and bed and hopefully get some well deserved sleep. Once Claire left the room and shut the door quietly behind her she was so tempted to cry - but she couldn’t let go just yet. 

 

* * *

  
  


    It was two in the morning, the boys had dinner and went back to sleep, they both still looked like zombies, but she felt some relief knowing they ate something. Claire had the ache still gnawing at her chest, and once she realized she couldn’t sleep either, she opened up her computer and finally let herself cry upon seeing the first picture of Karen. 

 

    “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Karen. I don’t know how to take care of kids, much less myself. I don’t want to let you down but I don’t know what I’m doing.” Claire sobbed, burying her face into her pillow and letting the sobs she had held in since after the funeral out. 

 

    Claire stayed like that for a few hours, looking through pictures and letting it all sink in that her sister was actually gone. She was in charge of her nephew's lives now and she had to find a way to not only keep her career, but raise two teenage boys as well. Claire had never taken care of kids a day in her life, she never even took babysitter jobs when she was younger, Karen was always the more maternal one while Claire always saw kids as a nuisance. Of course she never saw her nephews that way, she just barely knew them, she kept them so far off at a distance that she was lucky if she remembered how old they were when someone asked. 

 

    Her phone started vibrating, she turned the ringer off the past week not wanting anything to come between her and taking care of things in Wisconsin. She grabbed the phone and saw it was Owen Grady calling her; they had dated last year and while things ended horribly, they somehow managed to be decent to each other. After Claire left the morning after the call in a hurry and ran into Owen, explaining what was going on, he lost all snark and attitude, offered to help her with whatever she needed when she came back - he cared. She never called him once she landed as she had promised, yet another promise she was somehow unable to keep, and he was probably wondering what had happened. Claire let the phone ring until it stopped, a few minutes later it popped up with a voicemail that she dared to listen to. 

 

_ “Hey Claire, I know...I know you’re probably going through alot right now, I can’t even imagine what you’re going through actually. I hope you’re okay, that you’re safe. I’ll check on you tomorrow. Sorry for calling so late, or early I guess, the sun is coming up. Either way...I hope you’re okay. Bye, Claire.”  _

  
    The voicemail ended and for the first time that night Claire allowed herself to stop crying. She felt some small bit of relief knowing that there was someone here on this island that cared, and it was the person she least expected. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here's to hoping I wrote another good chapter! :3

    For the first month, Claire kept herself entirely busy with the boys; setting them up on the island, enrolling them in virtual school, helping them with their rooms and whatever else they needed. She buried herself in whatever the boys needed until Masrani finally relented and said she could come back to work instead of taking her full time off to adjust. Claire was desperate to lose herself in her work, the boys were adjusting fairly well, when they finished their schoolwork they roamed around the park, she even heard they befriended a few of the employee’s and their kids when they would visit, curious about the dinosaurs around them. Today was her first day back, she’d gotten a few looks from employee’s in the office, and while Zara had been there when she needed her while she was off, she was more than glad that Zara tried to keep things as normal as possible for her back in the office. 

 

    “This is all the paperwork that has to be signed off for the day, most of it is from that raptor trainer.” Zara huffed as she gestured to the large pile sitting on Claire’s desk. “And you have two meetings today, one with Mr. Masrani at two and one with corporate at three.”

 

    “Thank you, Zara.” Claire gave her a slight nod before taking a seat behind her desk, it seemed like an eternity since she had been in this office. 

 

    “I’ll be at my desk if you need me.” Zara said before walking out the office and quietly shutting the door behind her. 

 

    Claire lost herself in her work, or at least as best as she could, it was her way of coping and dealing with things; her way of helping her realize that her sister was gone and she was now the mother to two teenage boys. And it worked most of the day, until Claire’s cell phone rang at six o’clock at night, running a bit late from leaving work and trying to dig her keys out of her purse. She didn’t even check the caller ID before she answered, maneuvering keys into the lock with one hand and pressing the phone close to her ear as she balanced it on her shoulder. 

 

    “Hello?” Claire asked, finally getting the door open and tossing her purse into the passenger seat, hitting one of Gray’s dinosaurs and it emitting a low growl as the batteries were dying. 

 

    “Claire, where are you?” It was Owen’s voice, she was able to pick up on that much right away. What took her a moment was trying to listen to the panic in his voice. 

 

    “I’m just leaving work, I tried to get ahead on some paperwork and ran a bit late, why?” Claire asked curiously, hoping that it wasn’t something with the velociraptors, that was the last thing she needed. 

 

    “I, uh, I have one of the boys, the little one, Gray. He just...found his way out here, I have no idea how.” Owen explained. 

 

    “WHAT?” Claire shouted. “How did he get to the other side of the island  _ alone? _ Did he say where Zach is?” She was in full panic now. Her eleven year old nephew had managed to trek across an island filled with dinosaurs, completely unnoticed, and without his older brother. 

 

    “I have no idea how he got here, I was up on the catwalk and Barry found him out by the safety cage watching the girls. He didn’t say anything about Zach, in fact, he hasn’t said much of anything. He just wants to watch the girls.” Owen sighed. 

 

    “ _ Shit, shit shit. _ ” Claire hissed under her breath, slamming her car door shut and cranking up the car. “Alright, I’ll be there in a few minutes, I’m putting a call in to security to see if anyone can find Zach around the park.” 

 

    “Relax Claire, I have Gray, he’s fine here with me. Go find Zach first, he’s the one missing, Gray will keep me company, I’ll teach him about the girls.” Owen’s voice was completely calm, it was what made Claire’s heart rate slow a bit and take a deep breath. 

 

    “Okay, just...keep Gray there, I’ll come by once I have Zach.” Claire said. 

 

* * *

  
  


    He was by the T-Rex, he just stayed through all the shows and kept watching the T-Rex eat goat after goat through the day. Claire wanted to be angry with him, she wanted to shout at him for not keeping an eye on Gray and letting him wander on his own free will, but when Claire saw the dark circles underneath his red eyes and she  _ finally _ realized what day it was - of all days for her to go back to work - she couldn’t yell at him. It was the 16th, two months after Karen and their father had died, it was always a hard day for them to face. Claire loaded him up into her car, and just let him sit silently beside her, his headphones blaring some kind of music as they drove to the other side of the island to get Gray. Once they were there, Claire practically ran out of the car and wrapped her arms around Gray, he slowly reacted and hugged her back, letting a few sobs escape before she got him to the car. 

 

    “Is he okay?” Owen asked Claire once Gray was loaded up. “What about Zach?” 

 

    “They’ll be okay. I forgot, god, I should have waited until tomorrow.” Claire sighed. “It’s been two months since Karen and their father died, it’s...it’s a hard day for them to deal with.” 

 

    “Give them time, they’ll be okay.” Owen assured her. “Look, uh, I can take them a couple days a week, bring them out here to see the girls, if that’s okay with you.” 

 

    “I couldn’t ask you to do that Owen, they’re my bo-” Claire caught herself realizing what she was saying. Part of her didn’t want to admit that they were her boys now, she still wanted to resist, but who was she kidding? From the moment they threw their arms around her and they all cried that night she got there, they were  _ hers. _ “They’re my boys, my responsibility.” 

 

    “Yeah, but you keep this park up and running, that’s your responsibility too. I’ve got free time Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; I can get them before you leave for work and show them around, hell, maybe they’ll even learn something.” Owen gave her a slight grin and Claire couldn’t help but smile back. “It’s the least I can do to help. They can’t stay bottled up like that in the apartment and who knows what they’ll do running around the park with no one watching, at least out here by me I’d keep them busy.” 

 

    “You’d really do that?” Claire asked curiously, no one had ever been so kind as to offer her help like that, and when it came to her still learning how to properly be a mother, she could use all the help she could get. 

 

    “I’d be happy to.” Owen said. 

 

    Claire cast a look over at the boys, both of them lost in their phones now, trying to keep themselves distracted with whatever they could think up. 

 

    “I’ll ask them, I’m sure they’ll love to get out of the house, but I’ll let you know.” Claire gave him a small smile. “Thank you Owen.” 

 

    “It’s not a problem, really.” Owen gave her a shrug. “It’ll be like having a couple more interns running around.” 

 

* * *

  
  


    As it turned out, the boys loved spending time with Owen, they would tell Claire all about after she would get them after work over by Owen and the raptor cage. Gray especially seemed to be filled with facts about velociraptors now, telling Claire everything he could about them. Two months had passed like nothing since they spent time with Owen, they started smiling a lot more and seemed to acclimate to life on the island much easier. Summer was approaching and the park was set to get ready to be filled with vacationing families from all around the world, and while the boys were happy, Claire was beyond stressed. When she came to get the boys from Owen late on a Friday, Claire was exhausted and wanted to get home, get the boys fed, and sleep for as long as she possibly could. 

 

    “Sorry I’m late.” Claire sighed as she walked up to Owen on the catwalk, the boys right beside him and watching the girls try to track down the smell of the pig in the pen. 

 

    “It’s fine, we decided to test out the girls tracking while we waited.” Owen said and nodded towards the velociraptors. 

 

    “Come on boys, let’s get home and eat something that’s not take out for once.” Claire said, the boys followed right away, making their way down the catwalk after giving Owen a quick goodbye; except for Zach who hesitated at the staircase. 

 

    “Oh, I almost forgot, Aunt Claire, Owen wants to ask you out.” He said with a grin before running down the stairs, Gray right beside him and laughing up a storm. 

 

    “What?” Claire asked confused. 

 

    “No, no, it’s nothing.” Owen quickly said, though Claire could see a slight flush on his cheeks, and she knew if she pointed it out he’d dismiss it as the summer heat on the island setting in. “They’re kidding, Zach is kidding.” 

 

    “...Right. Okay, well, I’ll see you on Monday then Owen.” Claire said, she had tried dating Owen once, it ended horribly, she couldn’t think why he’d want to try again, and then…

 

    “Wait.” Owen said as Claire stopped at the staircase. “Uh... _ if _ I were to ask you out again, would you even want to go out?” 

 

    Claire looked at him in confusion first, wondering if he was actually serious, then once she saw he was serious about his question, Claire softened a bit a chewed on her bottom lip. 

 

    “I don’t know Owen, with the boys and everything-” 

 

    “We’re okay with it!” Zach shouted up, Claire looking down and seeing him and Gray lingering at the bottom of the stairs with grins on their faces. 

 

    “Boys, get in the car, we’re making dinner tonight!” Claire shouted, watching them run to the car with grins still on their faces. 

 

    “Go ahead and get the boys home.” Owen let out a sigh. 

 

    “Okay.” Claire nodded, though she stood still, getting the courage up to say what she wished to say. “Pick me up next Friday at seven.” 

 

    Owen looked at her bewildered for a moment, then Claire gave him a slight smile before walking down the stairs and his expression changed from being let down, to being almost adorably excited. 

 

    “And don’t be late like last time!” Claire called up to him. 

 

    Claire made her way to the car, she could almost feel Owen boring holes into the back of her head as he watched her go, and once she got in the car it wasn’t any better. Both of the boys had huge grins on their faces as they waited for Claire to speak. 

 

    “May I ask why you two wanted Owen and I to go out?” Claire asked as she started up the car. 

 

    “Because when he’s not talking about dinosaurs he’s talking about you.” Gray spoke up. 

  
    “We’re just going to dinner, that’s it. Friends go out to dinner all the time.” Claire made sure to make that much very clear as they pulled away from the raptor enclosure, though it made it awfully hard for Claire to contain her own grin. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, sorry this took so long! I said I'd post this sometime last week but it kinda got away from me and I wrote other stuff before finishing this chapter, but I finally got it done! I hope you guys enjoy it :3

    It was just a date, that was all it was, a simple date out to dinner between two people who were friends. It was strange, Claire thought, that before all of this happened, before she had Zach and Gray living with her, she barely thought of Owen in a civil way, and now they were going on a date - again. Everything was going smoothly enough, Owen showed up on time - actually dressed for a date and not in board shorts - and acted like a gentleman, he messed around with the boys a bit before leaving, and while they were out a dinner, he actually talked about things aside from his four girls that consumed nearly every minute of his day, and when he did bring them up, Claire didn’t mind it at all. 

 

    When dinner was done, Owen brought Claire home, all the way to the door of her apartment, and Claire found herself more than surprised that  _ she _ actually initiated their goodnight kiss. And that she couldn’t have felt more embarrassed when Zach pulled open the front door and was clearly restraining himself from laughing while Gray just stared from behind him with a confused look painted on his face. 

 

    “Friends, huh?” Zach asked with a smirk as Claire put as much distance between herself and Owen as she could, she could have swore that Owen looked a tad bit embarrassed as well for once. 

 

    “Zach, what are you doing up, it’s late.” Claire stated, straightening herself out and taking on the role of mother again, it was nearly eleven at night and the boys looked nowhere near ready to go to bed. 

 

    “Gray got a project from school about the animals in the environment where we live, the T-Rex handlers said if we came back after the park closed down for visitors and around her last feeding time for the night that we’d probably get some pretty cool pictures of Rexy.” Zach explained. 

 

    “I don’t think they exactly meant dinosaurs with that project.” Claire said. 

 

    “Well, we live here, and they live here, so they count.” Gray said with a shrug. 

 

    “Why don’t you just use the girls for the project?” Owen asked curiously. 

 

    “I have another project coming up that they’ll be good for.” Gray assured him. “Plus, I don’t think my teacher believes that I live down the road from a T-Rex, so it’ll be fun.” 

 

    “And you were just going to go by yourselves?” Claire asked. 

 

    “It’s fine, the safety crew is still there, and we’re in a giant view center, it’s not like we’re going in the cage with her.” Zach said. “We’ll be fine.” 

 

    “No, I’m going with the both of you.” Claire said. 

 

    “It’s not that bad.” Gray protested. 

 

    “I’m going to have to side with Claire on this one guys, let her go with you. She may be in her cage but -” 

 

    “She’s an animal and she’s unpredictable.” Zach and Gray repeated in unison, clearly a lesson that Owen had ingrained in them in their time spent with him around the girls. 

 

    “Come on, let’s...let’s go see Rexy eat a goat.” Claire sighed, she had seen the show one too many times since the boys arrived and still couldn’t fully stomach it, but if it was what they wanted to do, she would do it for them. 

 

    “Owen, can you come with us?” Gray asked hopefully. 

 

    “Uh, if that’s alright with you guys, sure. I haven’t seen Rexy in a while.” Owen said, glancing over at Claire knowing that the boys wouldn’t mind, but he approval is the one he wanted and needed. 

 

    “Sure, that’s fine.” Claire shrugged. 

 

    Claire had to admit that she didn’t think her date with Owen would end with a family field trip to watch Rexy devour her last goat for the night, but it was an interesting end to the night to say the least. 

 

* * *

  
  
  


    Owen asked her out again, even after having to go through watching Rexy devour another poor goat, and the boys being completely fascinated with it for some reason, he asked her out - and she said yes without hesitation or over thinking like she usually did. This time he invited her out for dinner over at his bungalow, it would have made any other girl in the world ecstatic that a guy like Owen would want them all to himself, but it made Claire nervous. She hoped that things weren’t moving too fast between them suddenly, she liked them just the way they were, it was a nice balance they had going on, Claire was afraid that going to that next step already would ruin things completely. She would just make it clear, they were just having dinner and nothing else on their second date. At least, that was her plan. 

 

    The week passed, and along the way, Gray had caught a nasty cold. He was burning up, couldn’t keep anything down, and was stuffed up, always complaining about a terrible headache. Claire had never dealt with kids being sick, especially with how knocked down Gray got, which led to Claire calling Owen to cancel so she could not only take care of Gray, but also Zach who was starting to show the beginning signs of the cold as well. 

 

    “Are you feeling better, Gray?” Claire asked, pressing the palm of her hand against his forehead again, discouraged that he was still pretty warm, though he was cooler than he had been. The medicine should start fully kicking in soon, but it couldn’t come quick enough for Claire’s nerves. 

 

    “A little.” He mumbled, his eyes were half shut while he tried to watch whatever Zach had on TV. 

 

    “If you’re tired, just go to sleep, okay?” Claire assured him, giving him a quick kiss on the top of his head; she didn’t want to admit that she felt a twinge of a sore throat this morning when she woke up, she would more than likely get the cold next, but first she had to take care of her boys. 

 

    Gray nodded and laid down on the sofa, his head resting on the pillow he brought out with him from his bedroom. Zach was a bit pale this morning, but now he was going through the hot flashes and cold sweats that came with the cold, and Claire knew it was fully setting in on him when he couldn’t keep his lunch down earlier. Zach wouldn’t admit that he was getting sick, he still wouldn’t, trying his best to help Claire with Gray despite the cold beating him down. Claire finally had to tell him to sit and take something and just relax, which is what led to him watching some monster movie. 

 

    There was a knock at the door and Claire desperately hoped it was Zara, bringing her the papers from the office so that if she had to call out sick, she’d at least be caught up on her work for the weekend. Instead, when she opened up the door, she was greeted by Owen standing there with a giant container of something with him. 

 

    “Uh, hey.” Claire said, caught off guard by his sudden appearance, and no where near dressed up enough, in a t-shirt and sweatpants with no makeup on and her hair pulled back, she was focused on taking care of the boys and nothing else. “What are you doing here?” 

 

    “You said the boys were sick and from the way your voice was cutting out on the phone, you sounded like you were getting sick too, so I brought you guys some chicken soup.” Owen said. “Made it myself.” 

 

    “You actually made it?” Claire asked in disbelief, taking the container from him. 

 

    “Yeah, my mom taught me when I was a kid.” Owen said. “Maybe the boys will be able to keep that down at least.” 

 

    “Thank you, Owen.” Claire smiled. “I’d uh, I’d give you a kiss but I think this cold has gotten enough people sick.” 

 

    “That’s alright.” Owen laughed. “I’ll check on you guys tomorrow, tell the boys I said hi.” 

 

    “I will.” Claire smiled. “Thank you, Owen. Goodnight.” 

 

    “Night.” Owen said with an awkward wave and walked off, Claire gently shutting the door behind him. 

 

    Claire brought the soup into the kitchen and couldn’t believe Owen actually went through all of this for her and the boys. She used to think that Owen was a neanderthal, but she was coming to learn that he was probably the sweetest guy she had ever dated in her entire life. 

 

    “Who was that?” Zach called from the sofa, stifling a cough. 

 

    “Owen brought chicken soup over, if you boys are hungry.” Claire announced. 

 

    “I’ll take some, Gray just fell asleep, want me to wake him up?” Zach asked. 

 

    “No, let him sleep, he didn’t sleep at all last night.” Claire grabbed a bowl from one of the cabinets and brought it over to Zach, filled up with the soup. “I’ll give him some tomorrow, see if he can hold it down, right now he just needs to keep drinking, especially with that fever.” 

 

    “We’re going to get like that too, aren’t we?” Zach asked a bit bleakly. 

  
    “For a little bit probably, but we’ll be fine.” Claire sighed. “Eat your soup before it gets cold.” 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I've terribly neglected this fic, I'm sorry, but now that I've been pacing myself with all my fics I actually remembered that I forgot this one (again, SORRY).

    Next month, Claire realized, would be a year since Karen died and she took Zach and Gray in to live with her on the island. It had been almost a year and she was just starting to adjust to the idea of that she was their soul caretaker, that she had become a mother of sorts to them, and while Claire was proud of how far they had all come in the past few months, she wasn’t sure how everyone would feel about the new surprise she had to share. 

 

    It had been a surprise to her too, something completely unexpected and not something she had planned for anytime soon, but it happened. Claire had gotten pregnant, she liked the way things with her and Owen had been, and over the past few months they settled into a calm relationship, but all it took was one time for them to have one too many drinks and end up at Owen’s bungalow alone and, well, here she was a month later trying to figure out not only how to tell Owen, but Zach and Gray as well. Things would change, again, and she didn’t know if it was good or bad just yet; she’d heard the way Owen talked about kids and knew that he’d love the surprise though Claire was freaking out, and she had to admit that while Zach had been a typical big brother to Gray from time to time in the first few months, he was a lot nicer to Gray now and seemed to tolerate kids a lot easier, Gray was still just a kid himself. But there was the fact of that yes, she was pregnant,  _ on an island filled with dinosaurs _ , which was not really the ideal place to have a baby in the first place. 

 

    She wasn’t sure what to really do, she didn’t even have Karen to talk to about all of this anymore, but she knew she had to tell someone at some point, and out of all her options, Owen seemed to be the only one she should tell first. Claire was nervous waiting for Owen to show up to her office for lunch, she was practically shaking, but she didn’t know if it was for excitement or anxiety. As soon as her office door opened, Claire took a deep breath and tried to calm herself before Owen walked in and sat down across from her. She kept up a light conversation between the for a while, until her nerves just couldn’t take it anymore and finally started to show in her shaky hands. 

 

    “Claire, are you alright?” Owen asked, he was watching her carefully, almost exactly the same way he watched his raptors when one of the was acting funny. 

 

    “Yeah, I’m fine.” Claire nodded quickly, taking a sip of water and trying to keep it together. “Why?” 

 

    “You just look nervous, is it because the boys?” Owen asked. 

 

    “Why would it be about the boys?” Claire asked curiously.

 

    “...Because of what I just told you.” Owen said and studied her face a bit longer. “That you clearly weren’t listening to because you’re focusing on something else, what’s wrong?” 

 

    “I’m sorry just, tell me about the boys again.” Claire sighed. 

 

    “Okay, well, Zach asked about being an intern this year down at the raptor pen, and Gray’s too young to really work out there but he still wants to help out. I told them I’d ask you first.” Owen said. 

 

    “ _ What? _ ” Claire asked, all of her nerves about being pregnant suddenly shifting to Zach and Gray wanting to work with easily one of the most dangerous animals on the island. “No, no way.” 

 

    “They’re not going near the girls, they’d be up on the catwalk if anything, and they’re not going anywhere around that pen without me.” Owen tried to assure her. 

 

    “Can you honestly say that they’d be safe working with  _ velociraptors?! _ ” Claire snapped. “What if one of them falls into the pen like one of the last guys who worked here? Or what if they try to reach into the pen from the safety gate and pet them? I’ll be having a heart attack nearly every day and from what I’ve been reading, stress is not very good for babies, and what if-” 

 

    “Wait, whoa, slow down there, where did babies come from?” Owen asked curiously. 

 

    Claire froze and wondered for a minute herself until she realized in her panicked rant that she had dropped the baby bomb without even realizing it. 

 

    “God,” Claire sighed. “I didn’t want it to come out like this. It’s just the raptor thing caught me off guard and...I don’t know.” 

 

    “Claire, you can tell me what’s going on.” Owen reached out and took Claire’s shaking hands, holding onto them tight and knowing she needed reassurance more than anything right now. 

 

    “I’m pregnant.” Claire finally blurted out. 

 

    “You’re pregnant?” Owen asked in a bit of shock. 

 

    Claire nodded, chewing on her bottom lip and trying to study Owen’s reaction, though she was always terrible at reading people while Owen seemed to be able to do it with such ease. She couldn’t tell if he was excited as she had hoped, or slowly realizing the same horrific truth that Claire thought of which was that she was pregnant on one of the most dangerous islands in the world. After what seemed like an eternity, though it was only a few seconds, Owen smiled, gave her hands a squeeze, and stood up just high enough to reach across the table and press a kiss to her forehead. 

 

    “How long have you known?” Owen asked curiously. 

 

    “A few days.” Claire sighed. “I have an appointment back on the mainland next week, I wanted to wait until then to tell anyone, but I wanted you to know ahead of time, I’ll wait to tell the boys until then.” 

 

    “I love you Claire, we’ll get through this, together. I’ll tell the boys to wait on the whole raptor thing-” 

 

    “No.” Claire said. “Let them do it. I don’t know how they’re going to react to all this, and I know you’ll take care of them. I was just freaking out about everything all at once. They’re safe with you, and I know you’ll keep them away from the dangerous parts of the pen.” Claire cracked a small smile finally for the first time today that wasn’t forced. “And I love you too.” 

 

* * *

  
  


    To Claire’s surprise, both of the boys took the news surprisingly well once she told them after her doctors visit. Zach said it was cool, though he honestly seemed a bit more enthused by the news of that Claire was letting him intern at the raptor pen, and Gray immediately started asking a million different questions, ‘ _ is it a boy or a girl?’ ‘What if you have twins, how do we tell them apart?’ ‘What are you gonna name it?’. _ Claire had to tell him that finding out all that stuff would have to wait a while longer, but they’d know soon enough. Then Gray asked a question Claire didn’t even think of or cross her mind. 

 

    “So, are you and Owen going to get married?” Gray asked curiously, the question catching Zach’s attention. 

 

    “Uh…” Claire said, she almost wished that Owen wasn’t there, it would have been easier to say she didn’t know if he hadn’t been at her side and he would have been none the wiser to how terrified she was of marriage. Karen’s was falling apart before she died, though the boys never knew that, and she was always worried that the same thing would happen to her, just as it had happened to their parents, which was why she usually avoided ending up in relationships.

 

    “Yeah, I mean, you guys are already having a baby.” Zach pointed out. “You’re already like our parents.” 

 

     Claire knew there had been a few times where Gray had called Owen ‘Dad’, he’d called her ‘Mom’ and it became more and more frequent though she didn’t mind it. Though she’d never heard Zach refer to her or Owen as anything paternal, and hearing it out loud made her realize just how much things had changed in over a year. 

 

    “Well, maybe.” Owen finally offered, breaking the silence. “There’s a lot going on right now with the baby, and I know your Aunt Claire is worrying about you guys with the raptors.” 

 

    He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, giving her back a reassuring rub. He knew her so well that he even knew what she never said out loud. Owen must have noticed how she tensed up when Gray asked it or when Zach mentioned the parents bit. 

  
    “Cool.” Zach simply said with a shrug before returning to whatever was on TV, his laptop in his lap and from the looks of it watching one of the videos he’d taken of the girls in their pen.  


End file.
